Long distance transportation of large objects is not unusual, given that the large objects are typically manufactured at limited locations though their use is desired in many locations. Such transportation is often conveniently accomplished by train and/or truck. For example, large pipes may be conveniently stacked on train cars and/or truck trailer beds. However, the amount of such objects which may be stacked on a single car and/or bed is limited by a number of factors, including load stability, weight and strength. For example, while pipes may be stacked on top of one another, they cannot be stacked so high as to crush the pipes on the bottom of the stack, nor may they be stacked in a manner which risks that they will dangerously break off of the stack or shift so as to cause the car or trailer to be dangerously imbalanced and perhaps tip over during transport.
The above problems may be exacerbated when the object being transported is compressible. In such instances, it may be impossible to stack such objects on top of one another to any significant degree without risking that the bottom objects of the stack be damaged. One example of such compressible materials is large scale plastic polyethylene liners such as may be used for ground cover in a wide variety of applications such as land fills. Such liners are often provided in rolls which may range in length from 14 feet to 35 feet, and with a diameter of 18 inches to 46 inches. Heretofore, such rolls have often been transported in open top train cars, where the walls of the cars restrain the rolls. However, such a manner of transport has either been susceptible to damaging the rolls on the bottom of the load, and/or has required that limited numbers of rolls may be included on each car to prevent and/or minimize such damage. Further, such transport is limited by the availability of specialized open top cars, and the amount of rolls which can be carried on a single car are limited by the height of the car walls. Moreover, accessing the load for loading and unloading may be hindered by the presence of the car walls, with workers potentially hindered from reaching certain areas when necessary to connect and/or disconnect lifting structures.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.